As is often the case at such events, some of the more interesting developments took place behind the headlines and primetime speeches. From nightlife to restaurants to the unscripted moments you’ll never forget, here’s POLITICO’s side-by-side look at the conventions’ unconventional:

BIGGEST LOCAL ANNOYANCE

Conventions are, understandably, a bit of a hassle to navigate. With the tens of thousands of VIPs, attendees and protestors, there are a lot of things security has to keep an eye on. According to convention-goers, however, Tampa security went a bit overboard. NBC News’ Tom Brokaw called it “the most onerous I’ve ever seen” (even more so than what currently exists at the White House). His colleague David Gregory concurred: “You can’t get anywhere because of the security.” The same was true at Mitt Romney’s hotel, the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, where it was reported that law enforcement officials refused admittance to non-guests.

Hotels were an annoyance in Charlotte, too, just in a different way. As excited attendees checked in, they soon learned of an invasive creature (and not just reporters): Bed bugs. The Washington Times reported: “The blood-sucking insects have made a resurgence in recent years, including reports of them at nine of the hotels being used for Democrats’ nominating convention this week in Charlotte.” It made for good fodder for Republicans, however. Rush Limbaugh joked, “They’re not the delegates. They are actual bed bugs.”

AFTER HOURS

Both cities, it turns out, were a bit of a let-down when it came to post-convention activities. If you believed the endless media accounts, Tampa’s primary late-night activity took place in the town’s abundant strip clubs. The busts, however, were a bust. “They were expecting way more than what actually came,” said Gary Smith, a manager at Tampa’s Gold Club. A bartender at Mons Venus said business went down by nearly 50 percent.

Downtown Charlotte, still trying to find a personality that fits, doesn’t have a deep-rooted, established party scene, so the primary entertainment was, well, the convention itself and its various celebrities. (Look, Dave Grohl!) One attendee, according to local CBS affiliate WBTV, described seeing guy-best-known-for-being-in-Janes-Addiction-in-the-1990s Dave Navarro perform thusly: “I’m just eating it up. … I live in Uptown Charlotte and I know it’s crazy and I tell all my friends it’s crazy but I’m enjoying it and there’s not gonna be anything like this again.” And, later: “WBTV also spotted, Madeleine Albright, a former Secretary of State grabbing some frozen yogurt at YoForia.” Party on.

BREAKOUT STARS

In Tampa, you either loved or hated Clint Eastwood’s impromptu performance art on the convention’s last night. Regardless, his “empty chair/invisible Obama” routine was pretty much what everybody remembered on their way out of town. A Pew study reported that, “As many of those who watched at least a little convention coverage cited Clint Eastwood’s speech as the convention highlight (20%) as named Romney’s speech (17%).” “Eastwooding” went on to earn acclaim as an Internet meme and a Twitter response from President Barack Obama’s account was the most retweeted tweet of the RNC.

In Charlotte, it was someone 79 years Eastwood’s junior who produced the unscripted moment that no one could have seen coming. While San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro was delivering the speech of his life Tuesday night and talking about Mitt Romney’s flip-flopping, his 3-year-old daughter was doing some flipping of her own - her hair, that is. Carina Victoria Castro was caught on camera tossing her long dark locks back and forth as her dad talked about her first day at pre-kindergarten. The next day’s headlines? “Julian Castro’s daughter steals the show with hair tossing at DNC.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS, LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM

In a dramatic example of hot and cold sink faucets, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had wildly different experiences at the two conventions. In Tampa, he started a fiery debate with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about the party’s handling of racial issues, and it turned into a multi-day story. Later, Matthews said he was being harassed at a local restaurant by some Republican delegates, a confrontation that ended with Matthews asking, “What is this, a douchebag convention?”

Then came Charlotte. “We have never gotten a warmer reception for MSNBC then I’ve felt here,” said Matthews. The Huffington Post reported “from the MSNBC Experience in Charlotte, where fans of the network had just lined up for a book-signing with Melissa Harris-Perry, taken part in a Google+ chat with Ed Schultz and gawked as Chris Matthews made his way to an outdoor set.” And autograph signings? Straight from the set of “Hardball.” During an interview Thursday with Matthews, MSNBC’s Tamron Hall concluded it by saying, “I can’t resist talking to Chris with his huge posse and entourage.”

For local meterologists, conventions can be a brief but beautiful moment in the sun (pardon the pun). The nation’s eyes turn to you for that all-important local forecast! Too bad, they got washed away by the forecasts of a bunch of folks not from Tampa. During the Republican Convention, everyone’s eyes were tuned not to, say, ABC Action News Chief Meteorologist Denis Phillips, but, instead, the National Hurricane Center (nearly 300 miles away in Miami) and its daily updates on Hurricane Isaac.

And Charlotte meteorologists got upstaged by the president himself after Obama cancelled his outdoor speech on Thursday for fear of downpours and lightning. Charlotte meteorologist Brad Panovich of WCNC took to Twitter to do some head-scratching about the decision. “Thursday night will likely be the best weather of the entire week,” he wrote. (Sure enough, it turned out he was right.) His forecast got sucked up into the national vortex even more when Republicans from the RNC and elsewhere latched onto his tweets to portray the Democrats as chaning the venue because they were scared they couldn’t fill the 75,000-seat stadium. “[The] RNC is hijacking my tweet,” Panovich said, declining to elaborate because he didn’t want to get “dragged into the political fight.”

PARIS, IT AIN’T

While not exactly Momofuku, one star emerged on Tampa’s culinary scene: Bern’s Steak House. Rick Wilson, a Tampa native and Florida field director during George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, put it thusly: “Bern’s. That is all.” An oft-heard question amongst reporters drooling over the restaurant’s dry-aged cuts of beef and top-shelf wine collection was, “Have you been to Bern’s yet?”

The issue in Charlotte wasn’t necessarily where to eat, but just how authentic what you were eating really was, especially on the topic of BBQ. Conventioneers hoping to try some authentic Southern fare were disappointed to learn, as the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza did, that: “There IS no good BBQ in CLT. I’m serious.” Esquire seconded: “If you think Washington is hyper-partisan, it’s nothing compared to the way North Carolinians feel about their eastern and western styles of barbecue. But both contingents agree on this: Charlotte, host of this week’s Democratic convention, isn’t where you go for either.” POLITICO’s own food expert, Jonathan Martin, broke the unfortunate news: “I’m afraid it’s not a bbq town.”

WHICH CITY GOT THE SHOUT OUTS?

From the convention podiums, there’s plenty of talk about freedom, liberty, the promise of America’s future and all that good stuff. But how about some props for, you know, the city that’s hosting you? According to uncorrected transcripts from C-SPAN’s video library, Democratic speakers gave their host city more lip service than their GOP counterparts. Republicans talked about Tampa 29 times from the podium over their three days, while Democrats mentioned Charlotte 44 times.